GOP anti-abortion steamroller rolling in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at the Republican National Convention in August in Tampa. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune)

Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker said he will sign a bill passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature to compel a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound imaging test.

The person performing the procedure must "provide a simultaneous oral explanation ... of the ultrasound images," says the bill, "including the dimensions of the unborn child and a description of any viewable external features and internal organs of the unborn child."

The ultrasound images must also be displayed "so that the pregnant woman may view them." But, you'll be glad to know, "no person may require the pregnant woman to view the ultrasound images" and she'll have her choice of whether she wants the test conducted using a probe inserted into her vagina or a transducer placed on her belly.

The test isn't medically necessary, of course. The law is designed not to protect a woman's health, but to try to persuade her at the last hour not to go through with the abortion.

Anti-abortion activists, who are pushing such requirements in GOP-ruled states nationwide, have anecdotal evidence that ultrasound imagery can change women's minds. But a Wisconsin State-Journal article published last weekend cited two major studies in the last five years — one of 350 abortion-clinic patients who underwent ultrasound procedures, the other of 318 patients — that found the tests made no difference in decisions to seek abortions.

Either way, if the forced ultrasound requirement doesn't advance the anti-abortion agenda, then a requirement in the bill that a physician performing abortions have admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic ought to do the trick.

The phony justification for this is that the doctor should later be able to treat the patient in a hospital setting should serious complications arise, but the real reason for the requirement, also imposed in deep red states around the country, is to put abortion clinics out of business, particularly in areas where hospitals are under strong political pressure not to grant admitting privileges to doctors who perform abortions.

Other bills in the GOP pipeline in America's Dairyland include a measure to ban abortion coverage in state employees' health insurance and a proposal to ban abortions based on the sex of the fetus. These will follow a bill passed last year that denied state funding to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, a move that caused the organization to close four clinics that provided cancer screenings, birth-control services and testing for sexually transmitted infections, but not abortions.

After the 2010 elections, Walker replaced two-term Democratic Wis. Gov. Jim Doyle and Republicans won control of both legislative houses, largely on the promise of getting the state's budget in order and creating jobs. Abortion appears nowhere on the list of Walker's 65 campaign promises tracked by PolitiFact Wisconsin.

But surprise, surprise! "Wisconsin Republicans have become obsessed with eliminating access to abortion," said Planned Parenthood's state policy director, Nicole Safar. "Democrats have been powerless to stop them."

Similar efforts to hassle women or try to drive abortion providers out of business are underway in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Alabama, North Dakota, Indiana, Arkansas and other states where Republican governors and legislators are in control.

The GOP-controlled U.S. House took a largely symbolic stand this week by voting to prohibit abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy, a measure that conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling and has no chance of becoming law. Not yet.

The party campaigns on shrinking government, creating jobs and lowering taxes. It governs on social issues such as battling abortion, blocking gay rights and erecting obstacles to immigration reform.

To be sure, Illinois is a mess under Democratic rule, in large part because major members of the party can't get their act together to solve the pension crisis. Some may wonder why, under the circumstances, voters keep returning Democrats to office here rather than give the Republicans a chance.